Journal articles on the topic 'Cycling – Economic aspects'

The socio-economic value of holding a road cycling race around the lake in Bengbu Longzi Lake and its surrounding scenic areas is analyzed through theoretical research on the significance of the race, brand image, means of communication, route planning, and other aspects. The commercial and social value of holding the Tour de Lake for the Bengbu area is studied. Setting up the Tour de Lake will not only help to promote local visibility and the development of the leisure tourism industry but will also help to guide and promote the participation of the student population in the university city area of Longzi Lake in cycling.

Abstract Environmental pollution in cities is an increasingly popular issue tackled in research. One of the elements with a significant impact on the state of urban ecosystems is transport with its pressure on individual components of the environment. Sustainable urban transport is gaining prominence as a postulate expressed in cities’ strategic documents, constituting an element alleviating the negative effects of anthropopressure. In the light of the need to introduce innovative solutions for clean forms of transport, numerous papers indicate the bicycle as an answer to some of those problems. The article presents a review of literature referring to the socio-economic aspects of using the bicycle in cities as a means of transport for daily commuting. The analysis is based on publications on cyclist safety in road traffic, the perception of the bicycle as a means of transport in cities, and the introduction of innovative solutions, such as bicycle-sharing systems.

Cycle tourists are increasingly prominent in the profile of world tourism and, in the light of the literature, it is essential, among other things, to examine more closely who they are, what their concerns and motivations are that generate the choice of a cycle tourism product, and, as a priority, the level of economic, social, and environmental impact they cause at destination. In this context, this literature review aims at identifying authors’ and publishers’ interest in cycle tourism, the positive and negative effects of this form of tourism on the economic environment (direct and indirect), as well as effects on the social environment (benefits and potential drawbacks for local communities, along with health benefits for practitioners) and, last but not least, the degree of vulnerability to economic crises generated by travel restrictions. The conclusions reported in this article, as they have been drawn from analyses and examples of best practice, based on natural and anthropogenic geographical conditions, will be prioritised as future research directions. The usefulness of this approach lies in the information with significant applied and novelty aspects, addressed to local, regional, and national authorities, cycling and cycle-tourism associations, and various private interested enterprises, with a view to promoting cycling for recreational purposes and implementing cycling/cycle-tourism infrastructure as a sustainable way of developing small towns and rural areas with tourism potential.

The purpose of this study was to determine the increase in tourist visits and the impact on business actors in improving the community's economy. The research approach used qualitative descriptive methods to determine the increase in regional tourism through the Tour de Flores cycling sporting event. From research, it is known that with the implementation of the Tour de Flores, tourism in Ende Regency has increased from the previous year. The Tour de Flores cycling sport can indirectly achieve its goals, one of which is to improve people's living standards and improve public facilities and facilities. However, it cannot be denied that this increase has not been fully felt by the people of Flores, especially those in Ende Regency. The problems of the government and related institutions must be carried out optimally through increasing human resources, the economy, sports infrastructure and regional tourism innovation prioritizing HR, economic and other aspects. Keywords: Cycling Sports, Tourist Visit, Economy.

Usually, the figures and facts used to analyze cycling mobility in the urban environment, are hardly based in references to infrastructures as a factor that facilitates / hinders that mobility. Convinced of the need to consider other influential variables, we address from the CICLA project the general objective of knowing mobility in urban areas of Andalusia. More specifically we are committed to knowing which are the main social discourses and practices around the use of the bicycle, within the need to incorporate social, economic, political and cultural aspects usually separated from the analysis. Based on a qualitative methodology and a holistic approach, the results of this research shed light on some of these aspects, providing some conclusions and reflections of interest for the promotion of the bicycle as a means of transport in our cities.

Mobility is one of the most important and challenging aspects that influence climate change, air quality, and especially the quality of citizens’ lives. Therefore, creating sustainable transport solutions makes way for different modes of transport such as the bicycle, which is continuously gaining more supporters, due to the health, economic, and environmental benefits that it provides. However, cyclists are facing several barriers (e.g., lack of infrastructure), a fact that keeps away commuters from using a bicycle for their daily trips. Investigating the factors that reflect on the commuters’ intention to use a bicycle is a sine qua non for the promotion of sustainable mobility. Therefore, the objective of this paper is the investigation of the factors that prevent residents with low experience or with no cultural/lifestyle background in regards to cycling from cycling. The case study of the city of Larnaca (Cyprus) is deployed by exploring the socio-demographic and trip characteristics of the city’s residents and their relation with the intention to cycle. A two-step approach is developed, namely Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Despite the promotion of cycling that education is attempting to do (successfully), other factors (such as age, distance, and time) appear to prevent Larnaca’s residents from cycling. Among the actions that local authorities should undertake is that of safety prevention of the vulnerable users of the road network. This group includes elderly people, who need major encouraging interventions by local policymakers and stakeholders.

For decades, transportation has been considered as a link to all aspects of life worldwide. In this case, the world’s natural environment, social well-being and economic development all usually depend on transportation systems. In most cases, safe, clean, sustainable and equitable transport systems help countries, especially in cities and urban centers, to thrive. However, a wide range of research shows that transportation systems in most of the cities and urban areas are unsustainable. In fact, some of these transportation systems are considered to be a threat to the environmental, social and economical aspects of future generations. In this perspective, therefore, changing such trends in transportation requires the collaboration of various stakeholders at regional, national and international levels. In this paper, therefore, a wide range of definitions of sustainable transport are discussed. More so, some of the aspects of smart transport for modern cities such as cycling and the role of women in sustainable transport were explored. With the aim of getting to the core of the subject, cases of women in bicycle transport, especially in the Netherlands and Germany compared to Kenya and Uganda are equally elucidated. Although not fully outlined, the idea of smart cities and sustainable transport have heterogeneous characteristics globally as discussed herein.

Kyoto Protocol states that developed countries have the responsibility to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. It, also, suggests that developed countries take measures to enhance carbon sink. Therefore, every country pays more attention on the research of global carbon cycle. China, a developing country with a fast economic increasing rate, has urgent need of related data and information so as to adjust its national development plan and negotiate with other countries. Remote sensing is one of the most important technologies and data sources for large-scale carbon-related researches including terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling law, carbon sink/source pattern and sink enhancement technology. This paper introduces recent applications of remote sensing technology to the following aspects in China: monitoring land cover, simulating carbon flux, spatial distribution of carbon sink and carbon sink enhancement measures.

This thematic issue focuses on important but understudied connections between cities and climate impacts of long-distance travel. While urbanization and urban density have climate change mitigation potential in short-distance travel (e.g., by reducing car use and supporting public transportation, walking, and cycling), they have been associated with a higher level of emissions from flights. This highlights the role that city-regions could potentially play in reducing climate impacts of aviation. At the same time, the development of airports and flight connections has been an important driver of economic growth at regional scale and a factor contributing to global competitiveness of city-regions. This thematic issue includes seven interesting articles focusing on different aspects of the theme, all of which are briefly presented in this editorial. We also lay down some suggestions for future research directions based on the findings presented in this thematic issue.

Gully erosion causes severe damage to crops and infrastructures and affects the provision of ecosystem services worldwide. To assess the potential of gully control measures to protect ecosystem services and assess the conditions required for their large-scale implementation, this paper critically evaluates a range of gully control measures documented in the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT). Environmental and socio-economic impacts of technologies are assessed, as well as the implications for ecosystem services, costs and benefits of implementation, and stakeholder’s perception. It is demonstrated how gully control measures provide notable on-site and off-site benefits for socio-economic, cultural, ecological, and production goals, and to protect crucial ecosystem services. Control measures particularly contribute to soil and water conservation and to regulating ecosystem services by controlling soil erosion, water cycling, and natural hazards. Most effective control measures consist of combined vegetative and structural measures and of catchment wide interventions. While implementation of gully control can initially be expensive, on the long term, the cost-benefit ratio is usually positive. Moreover, the results emphasize the importance of evaluating control measures considering monetary aspects and all ecosystem services they provide. Nevertheless, individual farmers can often not afford the implementation and maintenance costs due to barriers for implementation and therefore require sustained institutional support.

Conventional bamboo cultivation practices advocates planting bamboo in cleared open areas. However, farmers in the south Konkan region of Western Ghats are traditionally cultivating bamboo in association with native trees. Various positive effects of native trees on the growth and development of individual culm, and a clump in general are reported as perceived by farmers. In addition to bamboo, farmers are getting multiple benefits derived from the preserved tree components. By considering bamboo as a main crop, I briefly reviewed various actual and possible interactions based on central biophysical hypothesis of agroforestry. Productivity of bamboo-tree agroforestry system as a whole is a function of multiple interfaces e.g. competition, mutualism, commensalism, association etc. and the mechanisms could be - various above and below-ground interactions, nutrient pumping, hydraulic lift, litter-fall and decomposition, nutrient cycling, microbial interactions, mycorrhizae association etc. and probably many others. Economic and ecosystem importance and the aspects of functional ecology in general are discussed. Importance of native trees and diversification of income sources to adopt various market and climate driven forces than monoculture farming are highlighted.

Abstract Tourism in rural areas has been defined as all tourist activities conducted in rural areas. The development of tourism in rural areas is dependent on external factors (e.g. landscape attractiveness), as well as internal factors (e.g. involvement of local authorities and society). Hence, it is important to increase the tourism potential for further increase of local tourism, and in turn to intensify the social-economic development according to a sustainable policy and multifunctional rural development. The main aim of the present study was to indicate possibilities to improve tourism management of the Zbąszyń urban-rural commune. For this purpose the following detailed aims were set: to evaluate local society satisfaction with tourism development in Zbąszyń commune, to evaluate the natural-landscape state of the analyzed area, to designate a new tourist trail or to revise the existing trails, and to propose modernization of existing tourism infrastructure. The obtained results revealed that in the opinion of local society there is still not sufficient tourism development despite some natural-landscape values. Hence, activities connected with tourism enrichment should be mainly connected with designation of two new cycling trails and supplementation of tourist information signs and tables. All proposed activities leading to an increase of tourism potential should bear in mind social aspects as well as natural values and would have a positive effect on economic income of the area.

A new strategic direction for greening our cities and making them smart to reduce the environmental impact of their performance, increase employment and economic viability and to enhance the quality of life requires a thorough assessment of sustainability and smart urban performance. The research presented in this paper is based on data on 143 global cities including London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Beijing, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo. Exploring linkages between different sustainability and smart city dimensions, this study applied a multi-criteria approach using a panel of 20 indicators to assess urban sustainability performance of global cities. The assessment focused on the drivers of CO2 emissions in cities, including important aspects of energy transitions, the share of coal in the energy mix and renewable energy, public transport, cycling patterns and pedestrianization, waste recycling as well as carbon tax. The results show that San Francisco leads in economic and environmental priorities, and Stockholm leads insocial and smart city priorities. Seoul consistently performs very successfully across the whole spectrum of indicators. We devote considerable attention to the strategies, policies and performance of the leading cities, namely, San Francisco, Stockholm and Seoul. This assessment could be a valuable tool for policy-makers and investors, and could help identify linkages between different sustainability dimensions, as well as sustainable development potential and investment opportunities in cities.

Abstract Sustainability research is complex and involves the evaluation of tradeoffs. Environmental, economic, and social aspects should ideally be considered. Even when one only pillar of sustainability is evaluated, results should be assessed within the broader context of overall sustainability. Environmental impacts from forage and livestock systems, as well as confined animal feeding operations, can be positive and negative, depending on the type of operation, environmental setting, weather episodes, and management conditions. These systems also have associated social and economic impacts. As in all agricultural management systems, there are likely to be hotspots of damage due to a particular management style combined with the right soil, landscape, and climatic conditions. Widespread, positive benefits of pasture-based management are possible when forage resources are utilized ideally with best grazing management principles leading to enhanced soil organic carbon storage, high water infiltration, efficient nutrient cycling, and minimal water and nutrient runoff into nearby water bodies. Research to quantify the environmental impacts of livestock management systems can be designed in detail on research stations to understand the direct implications of management differences on plant biomass production that captures atmospheric CO2, on carbon stored in soil organic matter, and on greenhouse gas emissions from ruminant livestock fed controlled diets. On-farm research is also valuable to characterize the impacts of a particular style of management across a diversity of environments using a system-level approach integrated across the farm. Communication strategies engaging major stakeholders from the livestock industry are key to deliver a consistent message to the general public. Perceived benefits, challenges, and opportunities must be science based, seeking opportunities to reduce negative impacts, and enhancing the positive ones. Messaging to the lay audience about environmental impacts can be focused on solutions from positive benefits or problems from negative effects, but should also address economic and social components.

The article reveals the main features of the development of the urban environment. The structure of the urban economy, the environmental aspects of the development of modern cities are considered. The economic progress of any city is closely related to the territory in which it is located. Prioritization of use by individual territories depends on changes in the socio-economic sphere. The main factors of transformational changes in the urban economy are highlighted, among them – the development of human society, which stimulates the emergence of new industries and technologies, the gradual loss of the cities industrial function due to the increasing influence of the services sector, concentration in the cities large numbers of the population, which causes the renovation of the infrastructure, development of service, cultural and entertainment facilities, the environmental degradation, which encourages cities to refuse dirty production and road transport. The ecological state of Chernihiv and the dynamics of its changes are characterized. Chernihiv belongs to the type of cities with relatively high level of industrial development. Industrial complex of the city, having significant share in the real sector of economy of the city, considerably influences the level and quality of life of city inhabitants. Industrial enterprises of the city went through a deep economic crisis, and beginning since 2002, stood on the way of post-crisis development, that means stabilization and rebirth of production. One of the peculiarities of industrial infrastructure of the city is that most of industrial facilities are located outside residential areas of the city. Analyzed the results of a survey among residents of the city on the idea of sustainable (balanced) development. According to the data, the population is characterized by insufficient information about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The results of a sociological study record the trend of the gradual spread of eco-regulatory practices among the population. First of all, it concerns energy conservation, cycling and rational use of natural resources.

New World bats play a significant role in ecosystem functioning and are imperative for maintaining environmental services. Nevertheless, human-caused environmental changes are jeopardizing bat communities, which results in the loss of functional roles provided by them. It is important, therefore, to assess ecological processes performed by bats in the Neotropics to define priorities in further research for better conservation planning. In this systematic review, I identify general trends, advances, bias, and knowledge gaps in bat-mediated ecological processes across Neotropical ecosystems. I conducted an extensive search on Google scholar, Scopus, Web of science, and Bat Eco–Interactions Database resulting in 538 references, of which 185 papers were included in the review. The papers were published in 76 peer-reviewed journals, with the highest peak between 2006-2010. From the six biomes recorded, Moist broadleaf tropical forest was the most researched, contrary to Montane biomes (<2000 m), where few studies have been conducted. Seed dispersal was the process with more studies (44%), followed by pollination (38%), nutrient cycling (10%) and arthropod suppression (8%). Seed dispersal and pollination displayed large bias on specific bat-plant systems and ecoregions, thus being important to explore other bat and plant species as well as other ecosystems. Arthropod suppression and nutrient cycling were largely overlooked despite to constitute essential functions in ecosystem resilience; particularly, more research is needed to know cascading effects on plant fitness in different agroforestry systems, but also is key the understanding of how bats can be pivotal mobile links in terrestrial ecosystems and cave environments. I highlight the importance to consider bats with multiple roles and functional trait-based approach to gain a comprehensive understanding of their functionality. Bat extirpations are likely to affect their ecological roles, therefore, mitigating major threats of bats are urgently needed to sustain ecosystem integrity in the Neotropics. Even though functional studies have increased in the last two decades, several aspects of bat roles are still obscured and is necessary to keep evaluating their ecological and economic importance to provide useful information for major decision-makings in Neotropical ecosystems' conservation.

Non-crop habitats provide essential resources for natural enemies such as plant-derived food, such as nectar or pollen, shelter, alternative prey, protection from pesticides and other disturbances, and moderate microclimate and hibernation sites. The main aim of habitat management is to offer a favourable ecological infrastructure within the landscape. Different ways of habitat management such as selecting appropriate plant species, understanding behavioural mechanism, maintaining the spatial scale and spatial arrangement with heterogeneity has a positive impact on conservation biological control. Harmful conditions are mitigated or favourable conditions are increased for natural enemies in conservation biological control. In previous days, conservation and biological control were not applied a lot, but it has gotten more attention. Natural pest management can be conducted at different spatial scales like at the landscape scale and at the field scale; natural pest management at the landscape scale through habitat management is focused on in this essay. In agricultural landscapes, non-crop habitats are comprised of hedgerows, field margin, road verges, fallows, meadows and often woody forests. Different agricultural pest species and many natural enemies are associated with these non-crop habitats. The proportion of habitat defines landscape complexity can influence the diversity of animals, plants and microorganisms. Ecosystem services that improve ecosystems through nutrient cycling, water regulation and pest suppression are positively influenced by landscape complexity that can help reduce pest density and crop injury. Habitat management has a higher level of opportunity to maximize multi-functional ecosystem services through a wider scale of landscape management. Therefore, habitat management can be combined into land use types of local, regional, nationwide, and worldwide economic aspects to reduce the dependency of high input based on existing agriculture.

In recent years, microalgal biomass cultivation has been growing in importance, not only related to the production of alternative foods and nutritional supplements but also for its usage for energy purposes or as a natural solution for wastewater treatment. Regarding these cases, the practical potential associated with the circular economy is evident. However, this is not an option for microalgal food and supplements due to strict hygiene requirements for microalgae cultivation used for these purposes. Currently, the most common cultivation options for microalgae include phototrophic cascades, photobioreactors, and heterotrophic fermenters. Generally, the higher requirements for the purity of the resulting biomass, the higher the consumption of energy and nutrients needed. These are the main operational parameters that significantly shape the total environmental and economic performance of microalgae cultivation processes. The comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of environmental aspects in the operational phases of three selected cultivation systems, located in the Czech Republic and used for pure microalgae biomass production, confirmed that the impacts of these systems in the assessed categories are fundamentally dependent on the amount of electricity needed and nutrient consumption, as well as their sources. For this reason, the heterotrophic fermenter was evaluated as being the most damaging in the comparison of the three cultivation systems, while the phototrophic cascade showed a lower total environmental impact by 15% and the flat photobioreactor was lower still, by 95%, mainly due to energy production from biomass. The major impact categories observed were climate change, depletion of fossil fuels, human toxicity, and freshwater and marine ecotoxicity. The environmental impacts of microalgae cultivation systems could be further reduced if cycling practices, such as process water recycling and reprocessing of generated sewage sludge, were addressed.

Duncan M. Laren and Julian Agyeman stated in their writings on 'sociocultural' which is a human nature that occurs everywhere but now society is gradually divided when it comes to public commercial knowledge and the rapidly developing economic as well as technological aspects. Various trends related to commercial matters are slowly creating destabilization and fragmentation of identity in some societies, as there are class classifications formed among them. Of the various opportunities that exist in a city, sometimes misuse that focuses on economic interest, as a result the interests of the community are ruled out because the available spaces are intended to be commercial interests that privatize public services and utilize land values by means of gentrification. A Third Place that provides a series of activities is one of the architectural responses in the development of an open society. Through the high appreciation of the community for sports and culinary as an attraction that is in accordance with the characteristics of the area, the program offered is the incorporation and development of basic activities. This project is expected to support the cultivation of skateboarding activities and similar activities such as cycling, rollerblading, and basic types of sports that can be followed by everyone, taking from the category of skating, this project promotes a dry ski program, where this program has potential in the region. Restraining the methodology of activity typology and trans-programming as well as the source of the concepts presented by Edward T. White, the project with flexible layout design creates removable dry skiing which is a dominant part of the third place program to build active communities in locations with high potential with a strong TOD system.Abstrak Duncan M. Laren dan Julian Agyeman mengatakan dalam karya penulisannya mengenai ‘sosiokultural’ yang merupakan sifat dasar manusia terjadi di mana saja namun kini semakin lama masyarakat mengalami perpecahan ketika mengenal komersial publik dan aspek ekonomi serta teknologi yang berkembang pesat. Berbagai tren yang terkait dengan hal-hal komersial perlahan menciptakan destabilisasi dan fragmentasi akan identitas pada sebagian masyarakat, maka terdapat klasifikasi kelas yang terbentuk diantaranya. Dari berbagai kesempatan yang ada dalam sebuah kota, terkadang terjadinya kesalahgunaan yang berfokuskan pada ketertarikan ekonomi, alhasil kepentingan masyarakat dikesampingkan akibat ruang-ruang yang tersedia diperuntukan menjadi commercial interest yang memprivatisasi layanan publik dan memanfaatkan value tanah dengan cara gentrifikasi. Sebuah Third place yang menyediakan serangkaian aktivitas merupakan salah satu tanggapan arsitektural dalam pembangunan masyarakat yang terbuka. Melalui apresiasi warga yang tinggi terhadap olah raga dan kuliner sebagai daya tarik yang sesuai dengan karakteristik kawasan, program yang ditawarkan ialah penggabungan dan pengembangan kegiatan dasar. Proyek ini diharapkan mendukung pembudidayaan akan kegiatan skateboard dan aktivitas serupa seperti bersepeda, sepatu roda, serta jenis olah raga basic yang dapat diikuti oleh semua orang, mengambil dari kategori olah raga seluncur, proyek ini mengangkat program dry ski, di mana program ini memiliki potensi dalam kawasan tersebut. Mengendalkan metode tipologi kegiatan dan trans-programming serta sumber konsep yang dekemukakan oleh Edward T. White, proyek dengan desain layout flexible menciptakan removable Dry ski yang menjadi bagian dominan dalam program third place untuk membangun masyarakat aktif pada lokasi yang sangat berpotensi dengan sistem TOD yang kuat.

In macroeconomy research that uses technological table, most studies have only considered a special aspect. This paper develops an input-output model that extends to the whole economy by adding finance into transaction table. This forms an integrated capital flow cycling system for whole economy. Economic growth is used to reflect economic dynamic characteristics. Whole economy is divided into five subsystems. On the basis of subsystem's balance sheet, we set up the simultaneous equation of whole economy. As part of the disposal income, the new loan of the subsystems is affected by money supply badly and the income ratio is not stable. In this paper, expenditure ratio of subsystems is used to solve the simultaneous equation. The subsystem's balance sheets and the simultaneous equation can be applied to study fundamental economic issues effectively.

Public transport is an important element of sustainable development that incorporates responsiveness towards the need for mobility by the population within the framework of the urban transit system. As a part of the public transportation system, bicycle transport, with its environmental aspect, is the bedrock of the idea for accessible public services. This study provides core parameters for the assessment of social and environmental dimensions in order to further develop bicycle transport. It also itemizes the principles that need to be followed with the aim of social and economic sustainability. As a form of transportation in an urban environment, the bicycle traffic, its share and distribution of trips, obstacles and challenges encountered by cyclists in the city, trends and prevalent issues related to the current conditions of cycling infrastructure in Sofia, Bulgaria, were analyzed. In a nutshell, the report delivers a compiled group of suggestions on opportunities that may help to increase the functional efficiency of cycling as part of the transportation system of Sofia, in both, the social and environmental sense.

Root turnover is an important contributor to ecosystem nutrient and carbon cycling, but seasonal aspects of root mortality are not well known. This study tests the hypothesis that in strongly seasonal climates, such as in Northern Ontario, Canada, perennial wetland monocots fall into two distinct categories with respect to their root overwintering strategy: complete senescence or survival over the winter. Root survival in late winter and early spring was tested for a total of 26 species using vitality staining with tetrazolium chloride. Root survival in spring was either over 85% (18 species) or 0% (8 species). Lateral root survival was marginally lower than that of basal roots. In some species, low nutrient supply slightly increased root winter mortality, but did not change the seasonal pattern. We conclude that in a northern temperate climate, the overwintering strategies of roots of herbaceous monocots are binary: either avoidance or tolerance of the long unfavourable season, similar to deciduous and evergreen leaves among woody plants. Roots do not gradually die during the unfavourable season, but either completely senesce in the autumn or survive the winter. The distinct root overwintering strategies presumably affect the species’ resource economics and ecosystem processes.

The cardiometabolic health spectrum that encompasses atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), dysglycemia, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and their sequelae are associated with several contributing factors, including high caloric intake and poor-quality diet.1 ASCVD and diabetes are closely associated, and both are increasing worldwide, particularly in the developing world.2 Pakistan is part of the South Asian subcontinent with a high prevalence of ASCVD and diabetes. Besides many other factors, the composition, quality, and quantity of the food consumed in the South Asian subcontinent appear to play a significant role in the manifestation of these diseases.3 Pakistan has an extensive array of geographical regions, ethnicities, and cultures that determine their dietary patterns and lifestyle choices.4 When compared with India, Pakistani food has always been based on more animal proteins.5 Recent socioeconomic growth and exposure to other cultures, particularly the Western and Middle Eastern influence have affected Pakistan’s dietary patterns.6 Food choices have become more energy-dense with higher calories and high-fat content, including excessive use of saturated and trans-fat containing ingredients.7 The non-communicable diseases (NCDs) risk factor survey showed that 96.5% of the participants were consuming an unhealthy diet.6 The variety of food choices together with increasing use of sugar-sweetened carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and lack of physical activity has led to an overall increase in the body weight and prevalence of obesity in society over the last two to three decades. These factors have resulted in a significant rise in the incidence of cardio-metabolic diseases.2 More importantly, these new trend has affected our younger population with the onset of diabetes and ASCVD at an earlier age.7-9 Most of the research on nutrition, dietary patterns, and their association with CVD has been conducted in developed and resource-rich populations.10 Specific diets that are associated with better cardiovascular morbidity and mortality include the Mediterranean style, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) style, Healthy US-Style, and healthy vegetarian style diets.11-13 The guidelines on diet and nutrition for cardiovascular health from the major societies (AHA/ACC, European Society of Cardiology) are mostly based upon the data from the above mentioned dietary styles.14 Pakistan lacks applied nutritional guidelines that can be adapted for our general and patient populations. A valuable resource, Pakistan Dietary Guidelines for Better Nutrition (PDGN) was published by the Ministry of Planning, Government of Pakistan 2019 However; it is not formally incorporated into guidelines for our medical societies or resulted in meaningful governmental policies.15 Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the lack of framework on nutrition for Pakistani population. Not only a review and improvement in our diet is required, other aspects of primary and secondary prevention related to lifestyle modification need also to be incorporated. This necessitates a need to develop a national policy to focus on all aspects of improving cardiovascular health and to address the issues related to the advertisement of unhealthy food choices on electronic and print media. This approach has been taken up by the developed world with significant results in health for their populations.16 There has been a gradual reduction in smoking and consumption of fast food through national policies and promotion of measures such as availability of food labeling, reduction of trans fat content in the food, and encouragement of exercise and physical activity through the availability of playing areas, cycling routes and sports in schools.8,9 Similarly, a more recent change in imposing a tax levy on sugar-sweetened beverages has improved the uptake of sugar-free carbonated drinks.17 Comprehensive diet and nutrition policies and guidelines must be developed, with the participation of all the stakeholders, at a national level and endorsed by the Government, and to fully resource the implementation across Pakistan. National guidelines on diet and nutrition must be based on a deeper understanding of the geographical, cultural, social, and economic situation of Pakistan. There are huge wealth inequalities in Pakistan leading to pockets of the population where there is an abundance of unhealthy foods consumed due to the adoption of Western style fast-food choices. More epidemiological and scientific work is required to learn the extent of the problem, particularly the role of our current diet as a causative factor in cardio metabolic diseases specific to the Pakistani population. Working closely with the education sector to build nutritional and healthy lifestyle advice into the core curriculum would allow access to a significant proportion of the population. This will accentuate the critical role of initiating heart-healthy dietary habits early in life. Given the limitations of resources available, we must adopt and incorporate innovative and novel solutions to influence and educate our local population based on consistent standard guidelines. For example, social media and IT-based solutions are being utilised to educate and follow up participants in the HEAL-Ramadan and COMET-Health Programmes. A majority of our population has access to information through either social media or mass media (electronic and print). The use of this approach is found to be cost-effective, easily reproducible, and less labor-intensive for public health education, a very important aspect of lifestyle measures programs. For inclusivity, we must also explore education interventions for parts of the Pakistan population for which an electronic-based program may not be suitable. A clinical review in the next quarter’s issue of Pakistan Heart Journal and a position paper later in the year on this subject will further highlight this important aspect of cardiovascular health. Our current editorial provides an outline and syntax for future work in this important area. We propose that the framework provided should be deliberated and discussed with other key stakeholders to develop comprehensive national guidelines incorporating the input from the relevant quarters. Furthermore, dietary guidelines must form an essential aspect of primary and secondary management of the cardio-metabolic disease spectrum and must include other facets of lifestyle measures, such as optimal body mass index, exercise, and cessation of smoking in the population. References Wu JHY, Micha R, Mozaffarian D. Dietary fats and cardiometabolic disease: mechanisms and effects on risk factors and outcomes. Nat Rev Cardiol. 2019;16(10):581-601. Kapoor D, Iqbal R, Singh K, Jaacks LM, Shivashankar R, Sudha V, et al. Association of dietary patterns and dietary diversity with cardiometabolic disease risk factors among adults in South Asia: The CARRS study. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2018;27(6):1332-43. Barolia R, Petrucka P, Higginbottom GA, Khan FFS, Clark AM. Motivators and Deterrents to Diet Change in Low Socio-Economic Pakistani Patients with Cardiovascular Disease. Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2019;6:2333393619883605. Mahal DG, Matsoukas IG. The Geographic Origins of Ethnic Groups in the Indian Subcontinent: Exploring Ancient Footprints with Y-DNA Haplogroups. Front Genet. 2018;9:4. Safdar NF, Bertone-Johnson E, Cordeiro L, Jafar TH, Cohen NL. Dietary patterns of Pakistani adults and their associations with sociodemographic, anthropometric and life-style factors. J Nutr Sci. 2014;2:e42. Rafique I, Saqib MAN, Munir MA, Qureshi H, Rizwanullah, Khan SA, et al. Prevalence of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in adults: key findings from the Pakistan STEPS survey. East Mediterr Health J. 2018;24(1):33-41. Sadia A, Strodl E, Khawaja NG, Kausar R, Cooper MJ. Understanding eating and drinking behaviours in Pakistani university students: A conceptual model through qualitative enquiry. Appetite. 2021;161:105133. Iqbal R, Iqbal SP, Yakub M, Tareen AK, Iqbal MP. Major dietary patterns and risk of acute myocardial infarction in young, urban Pakistani population. Pak J Med Sci. 2015;31(5):1213-8. Titus AR, Kalousova L, Meza R, Levy DT, Thrasher JF, Elliott MR, Lantz PM, Fleischer NL. Smoke-Free Policies and Smoking Cessation in the United States, 2003-2015. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(17):3200. Anton S, Ezzati A, Witt D, McLaren C, Vial P. The effects of intermittent fasting regimens in middle-age and older adults: Current state of evidence. Exp Gerontol. 2021;156:111617. Lichtenstein AH, Appel LJ, Vadiveloo M, Hu FB, Kris-Etherton PM, Rebholz CM, et al. 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2021;144(23):e472-e87. Kim RJ, Lopez R, Snair M, Tang A. Mediterranean diet adherence and metabolic syndrome in US adolescents. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2021;72(4):537-47. Harnden KE, Frayn KN, Hodson L. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet: applicability and acceptability to a UK population. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2010;23(1):3-10. Ferraro RA, Fischer NM, Xun H, Michos ED. Nutrition and physical activity recommendations from the United States and European cardiovascular guidelines: a comparative review. Curr Opin Cardiol. 2020;35(5):508-16. Iqbal R, Tahir S, Ghulamhussain N. The need for dietary guidelines in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 2017;67(8):1258-61. Cámara M, Giner RM, González-Fandos E, López-García E, Mañes J, Portillo MP, et al. Food-Based Dietary Guidelines around the World: A Comparative Analysis to Update AESAN Scientific Committee Dietary Recommendations. Nutrients. 2021;13(9):3131. Teng AM, Jones AC, Mizdrak A, Signal L, Genç M, Wilson N. Impact of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes on purchases and dietary intake: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2019;20(9):1187-204.

ABSTRACT With the expansion of livestock in the Amazon region, a high percentage of pasture areas are degraded and unproductive. Novel strategies are needed, including the use of native tree species, to simultaneously achieve economic and ecosystem benefits. This study aimed at assessing the effects of five multipurpose native tree species on soil fertility and forage quality of Urochloa brizantha pastures in the southern Amazon. Soil and forage samples were collected under the crown and adjacent to 25 isolated trees belonging to five species during a dry and a rainy season. The presence of native trees positively affected the level of potassium, calcium and manganese in the soil, as well as the mineral matter and crude protein of the forage, especially in the dry season, suggesting a protective effect against the seasonal drought. The tree species had variable effects on soil fertility and forage quality. Soil under Apeiba tibourbou had higher potassium levels, while the forage under Handroanthus serratifolius had higher protein and fiber content. Our results indicate that it is important to diversify silvopastoral systems in the Amazon through the use of native tree species, contributing to the design of novel silvopastoral strategies in the region. Common multipurpose tree species with widespread natural distribution could be used as a complementary aspect of pasture management to provide a protective effect against drought, contribute to enhanced nutrient cycling and even increase forage quality.

The introduction to the special issue of Methis on Estonian environmentalism provides an overview of the phenomenon of environmentalism and its spread across political periods, economic formations, and regions. The essay starts by contextualising the central concepts of the issue, ‘environmentalism’ and its possible translation into Estonian as ‘keskkondlus’, and its relationship with the concept of ‘nature’. At the end of the 1980s, amidst a deepening awareness of environmental crisis, some authors announced ‘nature’ to have met its end. While this end has become widely accepted within environmental discourse, the approach clashes with the traditional thinking about the beauty of nature and its strong bonds with national identities. To foster discussion and to bridge the discursive and ideological gap between the two perceptions, the authors of the articles use the concept as an umbrella term for both paradigms. The second part of the introductory article discusses East European environmentalism, drawing attention to the research into erroneous assumptions regarding the lack of environmental activism within the Soviet Union. Before its brief heyday in the 1980s, East European environmentalism was hidden within economy, policy, society and culture. However, its roots went deeper, reaching back to 18th- and 19th-century thought, to Baltic German – and later Estonian – early voluntary associations and the value seen in the homeland and its natural objects. The founding of animal and nature protection societies in the late 19th century was an early practical outcome, and similar thought became pronounced in print culture. In early 20th century, several nature protection areas were established, and people became avid consumers of popular science journals – an interest that would continue throughout the Soviet period. The 1970s saw an environmental movement to protect the wetlands of Estonia which were in danger of being drained. Throughout the 20th century, also fiction reflected the prevailing views of nature and emerging concerns about the environment. The issue’s opening article by Ulrike Plath and Kaarel Vanamölder takes us back to the 17th century to demonstrate the possibility of climate movements more than three centuries ago. This is followed by Karl Hein’s case study that depicts in detail the emergence of animal protection in Estonia a hundred years ago in the context of local and regional history. The next four articles focus on different aspects of environmental movements in the Soviet period. Elle-Mari Talivee retells the story of the peculiar character of Atom-Boy created by the childrens’ author Vladimir Beekman who depicts in this form the various developments in the Soviet nuclear industry. This example from children’s literature is paralleled by similar environmental concerns expressed in visual arts, as outlined in Linda Kaljundi’s article. In a more theoretical take on liberal and autocratic environmental protection, Viktor Pál discusses the Soviet propagandistic use of environmental issues. Olev Liivik contextualises the protests against phosphorite mining in the 1970–80s within the wider trends in the Soviet Union, including the practice of sending letters of complaint to the media, and the various waves of environmental dissent. The discussion of a more compact case of the so-called Green Cycling Tours by Tambet Muide demonstrates the same increasingly oppositional stance that took hold in the 1980s. Regarding the post-Soviet era, Tõnno Jonuks, Lona Päll, Atko Remmel and Ulla Kadakas analyse the various conflicts that have emerged around natural and cultural objects protected by law since the 1990s. In the freestanding article of the issue, Raili Lass writes on interlinguistic and intersemiotic procedures of translation in the theatre but, as our introductory essay suggests, points of convergence may be found here with the discussion of staging of conflicts in environmental protection. In the “Theory in Translation” section Timothy Morton’s classic discussion of environmentalism is published in Ene-Reet Soovik’s translation, accompanied by introductory remarks from the translator and Kadri Tüür. The final part of the issue’s introduction offers a comparative and interdisciplinary take on the themes discussed. The revelatory nature of historical events of any era, especially natural disasters or the conditions of their unfolding, uncovers the socio-environmental relations that push people to respond. Whether or not such responses become environmental movements depends on the context that either recognises or ignores human embeddedness in the environment. Searching for such parallels connects 21st century climate activism and 17th century upheavals, animal protection in the 1920s and a hundred years later. The Soviet period allows a simultaneous scrutiny of both the limited and ideological take on the apparent lack of Soviet environmentalism as well as the methodological challenges of finding the footprints of hidden awareness and activism. Unearthing this from literature, art and the restrained presence of expert voices also provides an explanation to the sudden explosion of activism in the 1980s. The silence of the next decades further proves that there is nothing obvious in the ways in which environmentalism can take hold of society, which demands precise and detailed inquiry such as provided by the authors of this special issue.

ABSTRACT The critical aspect of production agriculture in the southeastern US with increasing associated costs is to improve economic and agronomic sustainability. A four yr sod-based rotation system consisting of two yr of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flueggé) (grazed or non-grazed) followed by a yr of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and a yr of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), each with winter cover crop (grazed or non-grazed) was established in Marianna, FL. The effect of grazing on root parameters (length, volume, surface area, and diameter) of peanut was observed using a mini-rhizotron. There were differences in several root parameters between grazed and non-grazed plots including: peanut root length (307 mm in grazed vs 167 mm in non-grazed), volume (50 mm3 in grazed vs. 23 mm3 in non-grazed), surface area (399 mm2 in grazed vs. 197 mm2 in non-grazed), and diameter (2.4 mm in grazed vs. 1.7 mm in non-grazed). Roots at the 45-60 cm and 60-75 cm depths had significantly greater length in the grazed than the non-grazed plots. Likewise, surface area was significantly greater in the grazed plots at the 30-45 cm, 45-60 cm and 60-75 cm depths. Grazed plots at the 40-65 cm depths showed significant increase in root diameter. No significant difference in peanut yield was observed for the grazed or non-grazed treatments. A more developed root system associated with cattle grazing in the sod-based rotation system may enable peanuts to be more resilient in adverse environmental conditions such as drought stress, enhance nutrient cycling without affecting yield, thereby improving long-term sustainability.

BackgroundWe evaluated real-world clinical outcomes and toxicity data and assessed treatment-related costs in patients with advanced breast cancer who received treatment with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (CDKi).Patients and methodsWe conducted a prospective–retrospective analysis of patients with advanced hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative breast cancer who received a CDKi, in combination with endocrine therapy, at any line of treatment. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Cost analysis was conducted from a public third-payer (National Organization for Healthcare Services Provision (EOPYY)) perspective, assessing only costs related to direct medical care, including drug therapy costs and adverse drug reaction (ADR)-related costs.ResultsFrom July 2015 to October 2019, 365 women received endocrine therapy combined with CDKi; median age was 61 years, postmenopausal 290 (80.6%) patients. CDKi were administered as first-line treatment in 149 (40.9%) patients, second-line treatment in 96 (26.4%) and third-line treatment and beyond in 119 (32.7%) patients. The most common adverse events were neutropenia, anaemia, thrombocytopenia and fatigue. Grade 3–4 adverse events occurred in 86 (23.6%) patients, whereas 8 (2.2%) patients permanently discontinued treatment due to toxicity. The median PFS for patients who received CDKi as first-line, second-line and third-line treatment and beyond was 18.7, 12 and 7.4 months, respectively. The median overall survival since the initiation of CDKi treatment was 29.9 months (95% CI: 23.0–not yet reached (NR)). The mean pharmaceutical therapy cost estimated per cycle was 2 724.12 € for each patient, whereas the main driver of the ADR-related costs was haematological adverse events.ConclusionsTreatment with CDKi was well tolerated, with a low drug discontinuation rate. Patients who received CDKi as first-line treatment had improved PFS and OS compared with second-line treatment and beyond. The main component of direct medical costs assessed in the cost analysis comprises CDKi pharmaceutical therapy costs.Trial registration numberNCT04133207

The use of clean hydrogen around the world is expected to significantly increase in the coming decades as various countries move towards their carbon neutral goals. The United States has committed significant funds ($9.5 Billion over the next 5 years) to the demonstration of a clean hydrogen infrastructure with electrolysis ($1 Billion in research over the next 5 years) being one of the key enabling technologies. Polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWE) for hydrogen production are expected to play a critical role in this transition to a hydrogen economy. The DOE has formed a consortium (H2NEW : Hydrogen from the next generation of electrolyzers of Water) to overcome technical barriers to affordable, reliable and efficient electrolyzer development. The consortium is working on various aspects of PEMWEs to improve their durability, decrease their cost, improve manufacturability and demonstrate economic feasibility. As part of this effort, the consortium is developing accelerated stress tests (ASTs) for PEMWEs. The DOE in collaboration with National Laboratories and the U.S. Drive Fuel Cell Technical team has developed a set of validated and widely accepted ASTs for fuel cells. While these fuel cell ASTs have spurred significant materials development over the past decade, there is no accepted set of ASTs for PEMWEs. This talk will summarize our recent learnings from the development of PEMFC ASTs and how these apply to PEMWEs. While several materials including the cathode catalyst, membrane, and cathode gas diffusion layer are similar between these two systems, there are significant differences in the operating conditions and materials used at the anode of the electrolyzer. The key to successful AST development is to ensure that the stressors accelerating the degradation mechanisms are relevant to the operating conditions encountered in the intended application. An AST working group (ASTWG) that includes various U.S. electrolyzer manufacturers has been established within the consortium to incorporate feedback from commercial electrolyzer systems. Literature reports have demonstrated that both potential cycling1 and transition through Ir/IrOx redox potential2 (during open circuit operation or shutdown of electrolyzer) can be detrimental to the anode catalyst. Membrane degradation occurs under electrolyzer conditions and is accelerated with increasing temperature and low current density operation.3 The effect of electrolyzer operating conditions on both membrane and anode catalyst durability will be discussed in this talk. The various stressors leading to increased degradation of both anode catalysts and membranes will be discussed and potential PEMWE ASTs will be proposed. Acknowledgement This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, through the H2NEW consortium. References M. Alia, S. Stariha, and R. L. Borup, J. Electrochem. Soc., 166, F1164–F1172 (2019). Weiß, A. Siebel, M. Bernt, T. H. Shen, V. Tileli and H. A. Gasteiger, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2019, 166, F487-F497 Marocco, K. Sundseth, T. Aarhaug, A. Lanzini, M. Santarelli, A. O. Barnett and M. Thomassen, Journal of Power Sources, 2021, 483, 229179.

After serving two terms for a total of 6 years, my time writing this column is coming to an end. This issue of JPT marks my last opportunity to share my thoughts, recap my observations, and make note of some final touch-ups to the research conducted over this 6-year period with regard to recent heavy oil practices. Here are some highlights to keep in our minds over the coming years. Despite all the recent negative and serious changes affecting the whole world and our industry, life goes on and we will increasingly be needing energy. One should recall that statistics predict oil will continue to be the main source of energy for the next 2 decades, with heavy oil constituting a great portion of that. That means that, while the oil industry is going through unprecedented and even unpredictable economic downturns, the status of heavy oil is still unquestionable. However, we have to face the fact that this energy should be tapped in a cheap, clean, and sustainable way. The best aspect of this effort is that heavy oil technologies have been established and tested over a long period of time, unlike other unconventional resources. Lowered steam consumption, down to zero if possible, has been under consideration to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) while simultaneously producing heavy oil. This green effort leads us to nonsteam techniques such as the use of water with chemicals (mainly polymer) and noncondensable gases and certain unconventional methods such as solvent injection and electromagnetic heating, the latter being unavoidable especially for extraheavy oil and bitumen. These areas have been critically considered by researchers and practitioners with a considerable number of applications existing at the field scale. At the same time, the oil industry must deal with mature steam projects in the near future. We have accumulated so much heat energy over the decades, yet a substantial amount of oil remains in these reservoirs. What can be done to reuse this energy? Can we recover different forms of energies using methods with no GHG emission? The current practices encountered in field-scale operations to improve the heavy oil recovery in mature steam applications use noncondensable gases; mainly, these techniques serve to pressurize steam-assisted gravity drainage wells, improve sweep and microscopic displacement by adding chemical additives to the steam (or hot water), and re-engineer well designs (flow control for efficient heating and sweep). My final example highlighting new practices is the increasing trend of offshore heavy oil practices. Of particular interest is polymer injection through vertical and horizontal wells and pilot steam applications, methods that are effective even if they occur at the pilot stage of the process. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 199947 - Enhanced Oil Recovery in Post-Cold Heavy Oil Production With Sand Heavy Oil Reservoirs of Alberta and Saskatchewan Part 2: Field Piloting of Cycling Solvent Injection by Gokhan Coskuner, Consultant, et al. SPE 199925 - Scalable Steam Additives for Enhancing In-Situ Bitumen Recovery in SAGD Process by Armin Hassanzadeh, Dow, et al. SPE 199927 - The Myth of Residual Oil Saturation in SAGD - Simulations Against Reality by Subodh Gupta, Cenovus Energy, et al.

Background. Today, COVID-19 disease has caused fear and anxiety in all societies. The main purpose of this study was to find out the level of panic and fear of citizens over 20 years of age in East Azerbaijan province from the emerging disease of COVID-19 and to determine the role of some psychological and social variables related to it. Methods. In this research, a survey method has been used. The statistical population includes all citizens over 20 years of age in East Azerbaijan province in Iran while the statistical sample is estimated to be 384 people based on Lin sampling table with 95% confidence level. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaires were completed and collected in two stages in April 2020 and March 2021. The goal behind this time interval was to observe and compare the extent of coronary changes. SPSS software was used to test the relationship between variables and analyze the collected data. Results. About 45% of the participants were women and more than 55% were men. 24% of the respondents were single and 76% were married. In terms of education, the highest frequency (nearly 39%) was related to those with a bachelor's degree. In terms of age, the highest frequency is related to the age group of 41-50 years, which included about 30% of the participants. The mean score of corona phobia among the participants was 97.75 in April and 83.25 in March. Most of the psychosocial variables studied, including housekeeping, trust in medical staff and history of underlying diseases showed a statistically significant relationship with corona phobia (p<0.001). All variables in total were able to explain and predict about 70% of the variance of corona phobia. Conclusion. This study showed that corona phobia is closely related to psychological and social variables that should be considered by all institutions and people. Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the latest virus to be discovered from the Coronaviruses family. COVID-19 is a global epidemic that has spread over the world. COVID-19 has affected the people of the world not only physically but also psychologically. Most virologists and health professionals hope that in the near future, control and treatment of this disease will be achieved through health and treatment measures and injection of vaccines and drugs. The prevalence of COVID-19 in the world over the past year has risen so much that one can see the disease in almost all countries of the world. This study aims to investigate the level of fear and anxiety of people with COVID-19 disease in the course of a year and study some psycho-social variables related to this disease. The level of fear, apprehension and concern of people about this disease has been called "corona phobia". Material In this study, due to its nature, which has examined the extent of corona phobia among the citizens of East Azerbaijan province, one of the largest states of Iran, a survey method was used. The statistical population included all citizens over 20 years of age in East Azerbaijan province. The statistical sample was calculated to be 348 on the basis of Lin sampling table The samples were selected through multi-stage clustering. In this way, first the areas of each city were determined, then from each area, several districts, and from each district, several blocks, and from each block, several neighborhoods, alleys and houses of the respondents were selected. If a person was identified to be over 20 years in the selected homes, he/she was asked to complete the questionnaires. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection. This questionnaire is based on two parts, one of which is to measure the dependent variable, the degree of corona phobia among citizens. This part of the questionnaire consisted of 22 items that evaluated different aspects and dimensions of people's fear of Covid-19 based on the Likert scale. Formal validity has been used to determine the validity of the content of the items of the measuring device. For this purpose, the questionnaire was evaluated and refined by four experts in psychology, sociology, social work and social medicine. Cronbach's alpha was used to calculate the reliability of the Corona phobia test as well as tests related to three independent variables, including the level of observance of health tips, housing, and the level of trust in medical staff. After ensuring that the test has significant validity and reliability, the questionnaires were distributed and completed. Results The dependent variable, the degree of corona phobia, was measured using 22 items based on the Likert scale at the ordinal scale level. The average score obtained for this variable was 97.75 in April and 83.25 in March. Thus, it can be said that the level of corona phobia among respondents in early 2020 was higher than late in the same year. In order to find the relationship between the degree of corona phobia and psycho-social variables, Pearson correlation coefficient test was used. In order to answer to the question which psycho-social variables play more important role in explaining and predicting the degree of corona phobia, multivariate regression was used through stepwise method. Certainly, regression assumptions were considered first so that there was no deviation from the assumptions of normality, linearity, uniformity of residual variance, and non-alignment of independent variables. The results of this test showed that home living has the greatest share in explaining and predicting the degree of corona phobia. This variable with a beta coefficient of 0.704, was able to predict about 50 % of the variance of corona phobia. The variables of the level of trust in the medical staff and the history of psychiatric disorders were the next important variables. All studied variables were able to explain and predict about 70% of corona phobia changes. Conclusion According to the results obtained in late 2021, the level of corona phobia has been declining compared to before, but it is still worthy of attention. In this study, the role of four psychological variables were studied, including the level of Self-confidence in the face of Covid-19 disease, the level of anxiety and stress against this disease, the rate of remedy of prayer and worship, and the history of mental disorders related to corona phobia. All of these variables showed a statistically significant relationship with corona phobia. As the level of self-confidence increases, there is a decrease in the fear and anxiety about the Covid-19. As anxiety and stress increase, so does the fear about the disease. Psycho-social variables that have entered the regression equation, altogether, have been able to explain and predict about 70 % of the variance of the dependent variable, the degree of corona phobia. Practical Implications of Research One of the practical suggestions of this research is that in times of epidemics, various social institutions invite people to calm down, increase their self-confidence and reduce the level of stress and psychological pressures. Another is that now that the lifestyles of most social groups have changed, appropriate programs should be prepared for their proper and healthy use in these conditions. For example, with the closure of sports facilities such as swimming pools and clubs, other substitutes such as walking, cycling and the like should be replaced for physical activities so that sports that is necessary for the body and mind might not be neglected. Given the important role of staying home and people's trust in health care personnel, which was established in this study, it is recommended that the country's health professionals continue to emphasize the need for people to stay at home and follow health protocols. Considering the trust different groups of people have in medical personnel, the government should also use their expert opinions to prepare appropriate vaccines to fight the epidemic and impose restrictions, especially during travel times such as Nowruz and summer holidays. Research suggestions are also presented in several sections as follows: Considering the fact that limited psychosocial variables were studied in relation to crona phobia that in this study, other researchers should examine other variables in relation to different dimensions of this disease. Since this disease will probably be present at least in the coming months, researchers should conduct similar studies in other provinces and regions of the country to make the results more generalizable. In future research, in addition to examining the factors associated with this disease, it is suggested that other factors such as psychological, social, economic and even political and educational consequences related to coronary heart disease should be studied at different levels. Ethical Considerations In this research, the ethical principles set out in the Helsinki Declaration have been observed. Participants knowingly and with full consent participated in the study, without their names or other information being mentioned in completing the questionnaires and their answers are reserved by the researcher. The present article is documented by the approval No. 4251/7/P of the Research Ethics Committee of Payame Noor University. Conflict of Interest This article is the result of an independent study and has no conflict of interest with other organizations and individuals. Aknowledgment We would like to thank the undergraduate students of Psychology and Sociology at Payame Noor University of Maragheh for their hard work in collecting data and completing the questionnaires.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the opportunities and prospects for development of cycling in Kharkiv based on the analysis of the geographical prerequisites for its development: natural and social resources and projects of bicycle reform. Main material. The article describes theoretical aspects of cycling development as a form of free time activities, including approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of «leisure», «free time», «recreation»; the essence and features of cycling as physical recreation and active leisure, conditions for the development of cycling. The geographic prerequisites for cycling organization in Kharkiv are characterized by a favorable physical-geographical component. Thus, the landscape of the city facilitates the organization of cycling even for unprepared participants due to small differences in altitude. Climatic characteristics make it possible to organize cycling in Kharkiv almost all year round, with the exception of a short off-season. The total area of green plantations in Kharkiv is more than 11,000 hectares, of which the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, Lisopark, and the Sarzhyn Yar recreational zone are more suitable for cycling. At the same time, an analysis of the socio-economic prerequisites for the development of cycling in Kharkiv indicates a number of factors impeding its development in the city, in particular, poor quality of roads, absence of bike lanes, cycle lanes, special markings for cyclists on public roads. The current state of cycling tourism development in Kharkiv is characterized by presence of only two bike paths equipped in accordance with all European standards. There are several projects for the development of cycling infrastructure in the city now: the project of the bicycle network in the central part of Kharkiv «Re-cycle Kharkiv»; the project of the cycle path «Another Way»; project «Green network of Kharkiv». Along with this, the information support for the development of cycling in Kharkiv is insufficient. Conclusions and further research. The urban environment of Kharkiv is favorable for the development of cycling for many reasons. The most favorable season is the period from March to November, along slightly rugged terrain (almost the entire territory of the city, with the exception of certain areas), better through forests (Lisopark, Grigorovskyi bir) or along rivers. Cycle paths according to European standards are laid only in the Lisopark’s area and Sarzhyn Yar, which is insufficient. The problematic issues hindering the development of cycling tourism in Kharkiv include: insufficient network of bike paths, concentration of the existing network in the Shevchenko district, while in other Kharkiv districts these opportunities are significantly limited, poor development of the bicycle infrastructure system, lack of comprehensive information support. The prospective direction is the development of the Kharkiv Green Network project, which provides laying bike paths not along highways, but at a certain distance from them with the involvement of green zones, abandoned territories, provided they will be well-equipped. In this case, the opportunities and prospects for the development of cycling will be determined, meeting the main theoretical basics of physical recreation and leisure. To improve the information support of cycling tourism, it is recommended to create a specialized bike site with the following sections: accessibility; specifications; safety; cycling infrastructure; memos - with multimedia content for each, including cartographic materials.

For disabled and older people, journeys need to be seamless – with no failures in access from origin to destination. Because the public transport environment, including walking and cycling modes, is not accessible, the use of private cars remains essential to social inclusion. Consequently, social goals relating to private car use in relation to health, environment and land-use will be harder to achieve. Greater attention needs to be paid to the detail of the “journey chain” with access consistently provided throughout, making for seamless journeys. This attention needs to be paid in all aspects of transport planning as well as delivery, including in the appraisal process. In transport projects appraisal, the costs of providing access are monetized, but not the benefits. The author undertook an experiment to value the benefits of step-free access for everyone and found significant economic benefit that enhanced the benefit:cost ratio. Until the benefits of accessible transport are properly considered for everybody across the whole planning process including appraisal, providing access will continue to be an uphill struggle and access throughout the journey chain will remain hit and miss.

The today's energy market requires highly efficient power plants under flexible operating conditions. Especially, the fluctuating availability of renewables demands higher cycling of fossil fired power plants. The need for highly efficient steam turbines is driven by CO2 reduction programs and depletion of fossil resources. Increased efficiency requires higher steam temperatures up to 630 °C in today's units or even more for future steam power plants. The gap between material properties in the hot and cold running parts of a steam turbine rotor is widened by increased live steam temperatures and the increased demand for flexibility. These technical challenges are accompanied by economic aspects, i.e., the market requirements have to be met at reasonable costs. The welding of steam turbine rotors is one measure to balance required material properties and economical solutions. The rotor is a core component of the steam turbine and its long-term integrity is a key factor for reliable and safe operation of the power plant. An important aspect of weld quality is the determination of permissible size of weld imperfections assessed by fracture mechanics methods. The integrity of rotor weld joints is assured by ultrasonic inspection after the final post weld heat treatment with respect to fracture mechanics allowable flaw sizes. This procedure usually does not take credit from the quality measures applied during monitoring of the welding process. This paper provides an overview of a holistic design approach for steam turbine rotor weld joints comprising the welding process and its improved online monitoring, nondestructive evaluation, material technology, and its fracture mechanics assessment. The corresponding quality measures and their interaction with fracture mechanics design of the weld joint are described. The application of this concept allows to exploit the potentials of weld joints and to assure a safe turbine operation over life time.

The urban planning system seeks to guide appropriate development to the right place and to prevent inappropriate development from taking place aiming at securing sustainable development. However, rapid urban growth due to high fertility and rural-urban migration have exerted pressure on the environment of urban settlements. Urban settlements in developing countries, especially, are facing increasing issues and challenges in various aspects, i.e. physical, social and economic. In Malaysia, various researches and studies have been carried out to understand the issues and challenges of urban settlements in the country.This issue of Planning Malaysia aims to share findings of researches/studies in various aspects of urban settlement and planning in Malaysia. It covers the aspects of globalization and urban planning, urban forms, finance, housing, social, agro-tourism, recreation, urban spaces, transportation, and heritage.The authors of paper 1 suggest that neoliberal globalization certainly gives rise for enabling urban settlements as can be seen in the area of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. However, the process brings further challenges to the Malaysian planning system such as social injustice and environmental deterioration. In paper 2, the study on urban sprawl has found that cost of development is higher when built further away from service centres. The substantial infrastructure costs savings can be achieved by increasing urban densities and locating new development near existing built-up areas. In paper 3, the authors highlighted the efforts by the government to eradicate squatters and providing low-cost housing in Malaysia. However, the existing policies and programs have yet to meet the target of “zero squatter”.For social-related issues, paper 4 concludes that most of the local respondents from one of the medium cost apartments felt that the presence of foreign immigrants negatively affecting them in terms of family and community relationship, sense of belonging, safety and housing price/cost. In paper 5, the authors discuss several negative and positive impacts on locals due to the presence of foreign immigrants in agro-tourism industry in Cameron Highland.In terms of recreational planning in urban settlements, paper 6 shows that recreational facilities in urban areas can give satisfaction to youths. It covers the aspects of the current state of the facilities, proximity, accessibility and level of maintenance. Meanwhile, paper 7 indicates that the nature and human interactions require elements of open spaces such as green spaces, water elements, and physical attributes to enhance the human-human and human-nature interactions.For the aspect of transportation, paper 8 found that majority of respondents were not ready to consider cycling or walking as an alternative mode of travel. Besides, respondents who use their cars more frequently have lower level of willingness to use public transport. Further, the authors of paper 9 also found that majority of respondents did not use bicycles as a primary mode of transportation in their daily trips to work, shops, and others even though the provision of cycle lanes and the related infrastructure were excellent. In paper 10, the authors look into public transportation service (Hop-On Hop-Off bus) for urban tourism. It was found that the single route bus service for whole Kuala Lumpur city centre is not suitable. It takes tourists too long to complete the route. The authors propose that the existing route should be broken into three.For the issues on heritage, paper 11 shows that gentrification is a decent way of developing an urban heritage site to be in line with the development strategies of a country. However, uncontrolled gentrification can result in negative consequences. In the study area, many members of the local community felt marginalized and isolated in their place of birth.Finally, it should be mentioned that the publication of this Planning Malaysia Journal is aimed at encouraging professional/academic communication and sharing of research findings among practitioners, policy makers, researchers, students, and managers in urban development and planning related fields. Continuous research, study, and sharing of knowledge should be able to improve the existing practice of planning, design, andmanagement of urban settlements.

Abstract Background Cities are an important driving force to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda. The SDGs provide an operational framework to consider urbanization globally, while providing local mechanisms for action and careful attention to closing the gaps in the distribution of health gains. While health and well-being are explicitly addressed in SDG 3, health is also present as a pre condition of SDG 11, that aims at inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities. Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an approach to public policy across sectors that systematically takes into account the health implications of decisions, seeks synergies, and avoids harmful health impacts in order to improve population health and health equity. HiAP is key for local decision-making processes in the context of urban policies to promote public health interventions aimed at achieving SDG targets. HiAPs relies heavily on the use of scientific evidence and evaluation tools, such as health impact assessments (HIAs). HIAs may include city-level quantitative burden of disease, health economic assessments, and citizen and other stakeholders’ involvement to inform the integration of health recommendations in urban policies. The Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)‘s Urban Planning, Environment and Health Initiative provides an example of a successful model of translating scientific evidence into policy and practice with regards to sustainable and healthy urban development. The experiences collected through ISGlobal’s participation implementing HIAs in several cities worldwide as a way to promote HiAP are the basis for this analysis. Aim The aim of this article is threefold: to understand the links between social determinants of health, environmental exposures, behaviour, health outcomes and urban policies within the SDGs, following a HiAP rationale; to review and analyze the key elements of a HiAP approach as an accelerator of the SDGs in the context of urban and transport planning; and to describe lessons learnt from practical implementation of HIAs in cities across Europe, Africa and Latin-America. Methods We create a comprehensive, urban health related SDGs conceptual framework, by linking already described urban health dimensions to existing SDGs, targets and indicators. We discuss, taking into account the necessary conditions and steps to conduct HiAP, the main barriers and opportunities within the SDGs framework. We conclude by reviewing HIAs in a number of cities worldwide (based on the experiences collected by co-authors of this publication), including city-level quantitative burden of disease and health economic assessments, as practical tools to inform the integration of health recommendations in urban policies. Results A conceptual framework linking SDGs and urban and transportplanning, environmental exposures, behaviour and health outcomes, following a HiAP rationale, is designed. We found at least 38 SDG targets relevant to urban health, corresponding to 15 SDGs, while 4 important aspects contained in our proposed framework were not present in the SDGs (physical activity, noise, quality of life or social capital). Thus, a more comprehensive HiAP vision within the SDGs could be beneficial. Our analysis confirmed that the SDGs framework provides an opportunity to formulate and implement policies with a HiAP approach. Three important aspects are highlighted: 1) the importance of the intersectoral work and health equity as a cross-cutting issue in sustainable development endeavors; 2) policy coherence, health governance, and stakeholders’ participation as key issues; and 3) the need for high quality data. HIAs are a practical tool to implement HiAP. Opportunities and barriers related to the political, legal and health governance context, the capacity to inform policies in other sectors, the involvement of different stakeholders, and the availability of quality data are discussed based on our experience. Quantitative assessments can provide powerful data such as: estimates of annual preventable morbidity and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) under compliance with international exposure recommendations for physical activity, exposure to air pollution, noise, heat, and access to green spaces; the associated economic impacts in health care costs per year; and the number of preventable premature deaths when improvements in urban and transport planning are implemented. This information has been used to support the design of policies that promote cycling, walking, public, zero and low-emitting modes of transport, and the provision of urban greening or healthy public open spaces in Barcelona (e.g. Urban Mobility, Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Plans, or the Superblocks’s model), the Bus Rapid Transit and Open Streets initiatives in several Latin American cities or targeted SDGs assessments in Morocco. Conclusions By applying tools such as HIA, HiAP can be implemented to inform and improve transport and urban planning to achieve the 2030 SDG Agenda. Such a framework could be potentially used in cities worldwide, including those of less developed regions or countries. Data availability, taking into account equity issues, strenghtening the communication between experts, decision makers and citizens, and the involvement of all major stakeholders are crucial elements for the HiAP approach to translate knowledge into SDG implementation.

Lithium metal is a promising anode material for its low redox potential and high theoretical specific capacity. However, the commercial application of the lithium metal anode is hindered with safety concerns arising from the uncontrolled growth of the lithium dendrites and significant volume variation during the lithium plating and stripping processes. Modification to the current collector is effective in tailoring the morphology of the deposited lithium and improving the cycling performance of the lithium metal batteries This review summarizes at first the global research advances in the structural design and the selection of the current collectors and their textures. It then presents some of our efforts in realizing controlled lithium deposition by designing current collectors in three aspects, lithium deposition induced by the micro-to-nano structures, lithiophilic alloys and iron carbides. Finally, conclusions and prospects are made for the further research of the current collectors.

Global environmental modification especially increasing atmospherical carbon dioxide concentration and temperature can have an effect on most ecosystems. The various responses of plants to those aspects of world environmental modification are well documented. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mediated plant play a vital roles in worldwide ecosystems, and protects host plants against environmental stress together with the uptake and transfer of macro and micro nutrients, modification of the physical soil surroundings and alteration of plant interactions with different ecology and environment systems. Numerous studies have incontestable the potential for variation in mycorrhizal fungal diversity to additionally have an effect on ecosystem functioning, in the main via effects on primary productivity. Diversity in these studies is sometimes characterised in terms of the quantity of species, distinctive organic process lineages or complementary mycorrhizal traits, also because the ability of plants to discriminate among arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in area and time. However, the nascent outcomes of those relationships are sometimes indirect, and therefore context dependent, and difficult to predict with certainty. Central opinion of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal multifariousness, ecosystem function relationships that concentrate on the direct and specific links between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi fitness and consequences for their roles in ecosystems particularly highlight functional diversity in hyphal resource economics. In natural ecosystems, predict that world environmental modification effects on mycorrhizal fungal communities are going to be powerfully mediate by the impacts on plant communities to the extent that community level interactions can encourage be the key mechanism for determinative world environmental modification elicited changes in mycorrhizal fungal communities. It’s accepted that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi interdependency can cut back chemical fertiliser and pesticide inputs. Consequently, this may result in a reduction in harmful chemical substance impact on surroundings. The key effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi practical interdependency are often summarized as improving rooting and plant establishment, improving uptake of low mobile ions; improving nutrient cycling; enhancing plant tolerance to (biotic and abiotic) stress; improving quality of soil structure; enhancing plant community diversity and changes ecology and marginal/ novel environments. Present manuscript, the ecological and environmental characteristics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on host plant, and ecologic significance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal biotechnology in agricultural system and globe sustainable development were reviewed.

There is no diagram that does not also include, besides the points it connects up, certain relatively free or unbounded points, points of creativity, change and resistance, and it is perhaps with these that we ought to begin in order to understand the whole picture. (Deleuze, “Foucault” 37) Monty Cantsin: Why do we use a pervert software robot to exploit our collective consensual mind? Letitia: Because we want the thief to be a digital entity. Monty Cantsin: But isn’t this really blasphemic? Letitia: Yes, but god – in our case a meta-cocktail of authorship and copyright – can not be trusted anymore. (Amazon Noir, “Dialogue”) In 2006, some 3,000 digital copies of books were silently “stolen” from online retailer Amazon.com by targeting vulnerabilities in the “Search inside the Book” feature from the company’s website. Over several weeks, between July and October, a specially designed software program bombarded the Search Inside!™ interface with multiple requests, assembling full versions of texts and distributing them across peer-to-peer networks (P2P). Rather than a purely malicious and anonymous hack, however, the “heist” was publicised as a tactical media performance, Amazon Noir, produced by self-proclaimed super-villains Paolo Cirio, Alessandro Ludovico, and Ubermorgen.com. While controversially directed at highlighting the infrastructures that materially enforce property rights and access to knowledge online, the exploit additionally interrogated its own interventionist status as theoretically and politically ambiguous. That the “thief” was represented as a digital entity or machinic process (operating on the very terrain where exchange is differentiated) and the emergent act of “piracy” was fictionalised through the genre of noir conveys something of the indeterminacy or immensurability of the event. In this short article, I discuss some political aspects of intellectual property in relation to the complexities of Amazon Noir, particularly in the context of control, technological action, and discourses of freedom. Software, Piracy As a force of distribution, the Internet is continually subject to controversies concerning flows and permutations of agency. While often directed by discourses cast in terms of either radical autonomy or control, the technical constitution of these digital systems is more regularly a case of establishing structures of operation, codified rules, or conditions of possibility; that is, of guiding social processes and relations (McKenzie, “Cutting Code” 1-19). Software, as a medium through which such communication unfolds and becomes organised, is difficult to conceptualise as a result of being so event-orientated. There lies a complicated logic of contingency and calculation at its centre, a dimension exacerbated by the global scale of informational networks, where the inability to comprehend an environment that exceeds the limits of individual experience is frequently expressed through desires, anxieties, paranoia. Unsurprisingly, cautionary accounts and moral panics on identity theft, email fraud, pornography, surveillance, hackers, and computer viruses are as commonplace as those narratives advocating user interactivity. When analysing digital systems, cultural theory often struggles to describe forces that dictate movement and relations between disparate entities composed by code, an aspect heightened by the intensive movement of informational networks where differences are worked out through the constant exposure to unpredictability and chance (Terranova, “Communication beyond Meaning”). Such volatility partially explains the recent turn to distribution in media theory, as once durable networks for constructing economic difference – organising information in space and time (“at a distance”), accelerating or delaying its delivery – appear contingent, unstable, or consistently irregular (Cubitt 194). Attributing actions to users, programmers, or the software itself is a difficult task when faced with these states of co-emergence, especially in the context of sharing knowledge and distributing media content. Exchanges between corporate entities, mainstream media, popular cultural producers, and legal institutions over P2P networks represent an ongoing controversy in this respect, with numerous stakeholders competing between investments in property, innovation, piracy, and publics. Beginning to understand this problematic landscape is an urgent task, especially in relation to the technological dynamics that organised and propel such antagonisms. In the influential fragment, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” Gilles Deleuze describes the historical passage from modern forms of organised enclosure (the prison, clinic, factory) to the contemporary arrangement of relational apparatuses and open systems as being materially provoked by – but not limited to – the mass deployment of networked digital technologies. In his analysis, the disciplinary mode most famously described by Foucault is spatially extended to informational systems based on code and flexibility. According to Deleuze, these cybernetic machines are connected into apparatuses that aim for intrusive monitoring: “in a control-based system nothing’s left alone for long” (“Control and Becoming” 175). Such a constant networking of behaviour is described as a shift from “molds” to “modulation,” where controls become “a self-transmuting molding changing from one moment to the next, or like a sieve whose mesh varies from one point to another” (“Postscript” 179). Accordingly, the crisis underpinning civil institutions is consistent with the generalisation of disciplinary logics across social space, forming an intensive modulation of everyday life, but one ambiguously associated with socio-technical ensembles. The precise dynamics of this epistemic shift are significant in terms of political agency: while control implies an arrangement capable of absorbing massive contingency, a series of complex instabilities actually mark its operation. Noise, viral contamination, and piracy are identified as key points of discontinuity; they appear as divisions or “errors” that force change by promoting indeterminacies in a system that would otherwise appear infinitely calculable, programmable, and predictable. The rendering of piracy as a tactic of resistance, a technique capable of levelling out the uneven economic field of global capitalism, has become a predictable catch-cry for political activists. In their analysis of multitude, for instance, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt describe the contradictions of post-Fordist production as conjuring forth a tendency for labour to “become common.” That is, as productivity depends on flexibility, communication, and cognitive skills, directed by the cultivation of an ideal entrepreneurial or flexible subject, the greater the possibilities for self-organised forms of living that significantly challenge its operation. In this case, intellectual property exemplifies such a spiralling paradoxical logic, since “the infinite reproducibility central to these immaterial forms of property directly undermines any such construction of scarcity” (Hardt and Negri 180). The implications of the filesharing program Napster, accordingly, are read as not merely directed toward theft, but in relation to the private character of the property itself; a kind of social piracy is perpetuated that is viewed as radically recomposing social resources and relations. Ravi Sundaram, a co-founder of the Sarai new media initiative in Delhi, has meanwhile drawn attention to the existence of “pirate modernities” capable of being actualised when individuals or local groups gain illegitimate access to distributive media technologies; these are worlds of “innovation and non-legality,” of electronic survival strategies that partake in cultures of dispersal and escape simple classification (94). Meanwhile, pirate entrepreneurs Magnus Eriksson and Rasmus Fleische – associated with the notorious Piratbyrn – have promoted the bleeding away of Hollywood profits through fully deployed P2P networks, with the intention of pushing filesharing dynamics to an extreme in order to radicalise the potential for social change (“Copies and Context”). From an aesthetic perspective, such activist theories are complemented by the affective register of appropriation art, a movement broadly conceived in terms of antagonistically liberating knowledge from the confines of intellectual property: “those who pirate and hijack owned material, attempting to free information, art, film, and music – the rhetoric of our cultural life – from what they see as the prison of private ownership” (Harold 114). These “unruly” escape attempts are pursued through various modes of engagement, from experimental performances with legislative infrastructures (i.e. Kembrew McLeod’s patenting of the phrase “freedom of expression”) to musical remix projects, such as the work of Negativland, John Oswald, RTMark, Detritus, Illegal Art, and the Evolution Control Committee. Amazon Noir, while similarly engaging with questions of ownership, is distinguished by specifically targeting information communication systems and finding “niches” or gaps between overlapping networks of control and economic governance. Hans Bernhard and Lizvlx from Ubermorgen.com (meaning ‘Day after Tomorrow,’ or ‘Super-Tomorrow’) actually describe their work as “research-based”: “we not are opportunistic, money-driven or success-driven, our central motivation is to gain as much information as possible as fast as possible as chaotic as possible and to redistribute this information via digital channels” (“Interview with Ubermorgen”). This has led to experiments like Google Will Eat Itself (2005) and the construction of the automated software thief against Amazon.com, as process-based explorations of technological action. Agency, Distribution Deleuze’s “postscript” on control has proven massively influential for new media art by introducing a series of key questions on power (or desire) and digital networks. As a social diagram, however, control should be understood as a partial rather than totalising map of relations, referring to the augmentation of disciplinary power in specific technological settings. While control is a conceptual regime that refers to open-ended terrains beyond the architectural locales of enclosure, implying a move toward informational networks, data solicitation, and cybernetic feedback, there remains a peculiar contingent dimension to its limits. For example, software code is typically designed to remain cycling until user input is provided. There is a specifically immanent and localised quality to its actions that might be taken as exemplary of control as a continuously modulating affective materialism. The outcome is a heightened sense of bounded emergencies that are either flattened out or absorbed through reconstitution; however, these are never linear gestures of containment. As Tiziana Terranova observes, control operates through multilayered mechanisms of order and organisation: “messy local assemblages and compositions, subjective and machinic, characterised by different types of psychic investments, that cannot be the subject of normative, pre-made political judgments, but which need to be thought anew again and again, each time, in specific dynamic compositions” (“Of Sense and Sensibility” 34). This event-orientated vitality accounts for the political ambitions of tactical media as opening out communication channels through selective “transversal” targeting. Amazon Noir, for that reason, is pitched specifically against the material processes of communication. The system used to harvest the content from “Search inside the Book” is described as “robot-perversion-technology,” based on a network of four servers around the globe, each with a specific function: one located in the United States that retrieved (or “sucked”) the books from the site, one in Russia that injected the assembled documents onto P2P networks and two in Europe that coordinated the action via intelligent automated programs (see “The Diagram”). According to the “villains,” the main goal was to steal all 150,000 books from Search Inside!™ then use the same technology to steal books from the “Google Print Service” (the exploit was limited only by the amount of technological resources financially available, but there are apparent plans to improve the technique by reinvesting the money received through the settlement with Amazon.com not to publicise the hack). In terms of informational culture, this system resembles a machinic process directed at redistributing copyright content; “The Diagram” visualises key processes that define digital piracy as an emergent phenomenon within an open-ended and responsive milieu. That is, the static image foregrounds something of the activity of copying being a technological action that complicates any analysis focusing purely on copyright as content. In this respect, intellectual property rights are revealed as being entangled within information architectures as communication management and cultural recombination – dissipated and enforced by a measured interplay between openness and obstruction, resonance and emergence (Terranova, “Communication beyond Meaning” 52). To understand data distribution requires an acknowledgement of these underlying nonhuman relations that allow for such informational exchanges. It requires an understanding of the permutations of agency carried along by digital entities. According to Lawrence Lessig’s influential argument, code is not merely an object of governance, but has an overt legislative function itself. Within the informational environments of software, “a law is defined, not through a statue, but through the code that governs the space” (20). These points of symmetry are understood as concretised social values: they are material standards that regulate flow. Similarly, Alexander Galloway describes computer protocols as non-institutional “etiquette for autonomous agents,” or “conventional rules that govern the set of possible behavior patterns within a heterogeneous system” (7). In his analysis, these agreed-upon standardised actions operate as a style of management fostered by contradiction: progressive though reactionary, encouraging diversity by striving for the universal, synonymous with possibility but completely predetermined, and so on (243-244). Needless to say, political uncertainties arise from a paradigm that generates internal material obscurities through a constant twinning of freedom and control. For Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, these Cold War systems subvert the possibilities for any actual experience of autonomy by generalising paranoia through constant intrusion and reducing social problems to questions of technological optimisation (1-30). In confrontation with these seemingly ubiquitous regulatory structures, cultural theory requires a critical vocabulary differentiated from computer engineering to account for the sociality that permeates through and concatenates technological realities. In his recent work on “mundane” devices, software and code, Adrian McKenzie introduces a relevant analytic approach in the concept of technological action as something that both abstracts and concretises relations in a diffusion of collective-individual forces. Drawing on the thought of French philosopher Gilbert Simondon, he uses the term “transduction” to identify a key characteristic of technology in the relational process of becoming, or ontogenesis. This is described as bringing together disparate things into composites of relations that evolve and propagate a structure throughout a domain, or “overflow existing modalities of perception and movement on many scales” (“Impersonal and Personal Forces in Technological Action” 201). Most importantly, these innovative diffusions or contagions occur by bridging states of difference or incompatibilities. Technological action, therefore, arises from a particular type of disjunctive relation between an entity and something external to itself: “in making this relation, technical action changes not only the ensemble, but also the form of life of its agent. Abstraction comes into being and begins to subsume or reconfigure existing relations between the inside and outside” (203). Here, reciprocal interactions between two states or dimensions actualise disparate potentials through metastability: an equilibrium that proliferates, unfolds, and drives individuation. While drawing on cybernetics and dealing with specific technological platforms, McKenzie’s work can be extended to describe the significance of informational devices throughout control societies as a whole, particularly as a predictive and future-orientated force that thrives on staged conflicts. Moreover, being a non-deterministic technical theory, it additionally speaks to new tendencies in regimes of production that harness cognition and cooperation through specially designed infrastructures to enact persistent innovation without any end-point, final goal or natural target (Thrift 283-295). Here, the interface between intellectual property and reproduction can be seen as a site of variation that weaves together disparate objects and entities by imbrication in social life itself. These are specific acts of interference that propel relations toward unforeseen conclusions by drawing on memories, attention spans, material-technical traits, and so on. The focus lies on performance, context, and design “as a continual process of tuning arrived at by distributed aspiration” (Thrift 295). This later point is demonstrated in recent scholarly treatments of filesharing networks as media ecologies. Kate Crawford, for instance, describes the movement of P2P as processual or adaptive, comparable to technological action, marked by key transitions from partially decentralised architectures such as Napster, to the fully distributed systems of Gnutella and seeded swarm-based networks like BitTorrent (30-39). Each of these technologies can be understood as a response to various legal incursions, producing radically dissimilar socio-technological dynamics and emergent trends for how agency is modulated by informational exchanges. Indeed, even these aberrant formations are characterised by modes of commodification that continually spillover and feedback on themselves, repositioning markets and commodities in doing so, from MP3s to iPods, P2P to broadband subscription rates. However, one key limitation of this ontological approach is apparent when dealing with the sheer scale of activity involved, where mass participation elicits certain degrees of obscurity and relative safety in numbers. This represents an obvious problem for analysis, as dynamics can easily be identified in the broadest conceptual sense, without any understanding of the specific contexts of usage, political impacts, and economic effects for participants in their everyday consumptive habits. Large-scale distributed ensembles are “problematic” in their technological constitution, as a result. They are sites of expansive overflow that provoke an equivalent individuation of thought, as the Recording Industry Association of America observes on their educational website: “because of the nature of the theft, the damage is not always easy to calculate but not hard to envision” (“Piracy”). The politics of the filesharing debate, in this sense, depends on the command of imaginaries; that is, being able to conceptualise an overarching structural consistency to a persistent and adaptive ecology. As a mode of tactical intervention, Amazon Noir dramatises these ambiguities by framing technological action through the fictional sensibilities of narrative genre. Ambiguity, Control The extensive use of imagery and iconography from “noir” can be understood as an explicit reference to the increasing criminalisation of copyright violation through digital technologies. However, the term also refers to the indistinct or uncertain effects produced by this tactical intervention: who are the “bad guys” or the “good guys”? Are positions like ‘good’ and ‘evil’ (something like freedom or tyranny) so easily identified and distinguished? As Paolo Cirio explains, this political disposition is deliberately kept obscure in the project: “it’s a representation of the actual ambiguity about copyright issues, where every case seems to lack a moral or ethical basis” (“Amazon Noir Interview”). While user communications made available on the site clearly identify culprits (describing the project as jeopardising arts funding, as both irresponsible and arrogant), the self-description of the artists as political “failures” highlights the uncertainty regarding the project’s qualities as a force of long-term social renewal: Lizvlx from Ubermorgen.com had daily shootouts with the global mass-media, Cirio continuously pushed the boundaries of copyright (books are just pixels on a screen or just ink on paper), Ludovico and Bernhard resisted kickback-bribes from powerful Amazon.com until they finally gave in and sold the technology for an undisclosed sum to Amazon. Betrayal, blasphemy and pessimism finally split the gang of bad guys. (“Press Release”) Here, the adaptive and flexible qualities of informatic commodities and computational systems of distribution are knowingly posited as critical limits; in a certain sense, the project fails technologically in order to succeed conceptually. From a cynical perspective, this might be interpreted as guaranteeing authenticity by insisting on the useless or non-instrumental quality of art. However, through this process, Amazon Noir illustrates how forces confined as exterior to control (virality, piracy, noncommunication) regularly operate as points of distinction to generate change and innovation. Just as hackers are legitimately employed to challenge the durability of network exchanges, malfunctions are relied upon as potential sources of future information. Indeed, the notion of demonstrating ‘autonomy’ by illustrating the shortcomings of software is entirely consistent with the logic of control as a modulating organisational diagram. These so-called “circuit breakers” are positioned as points of bifurcation that open up new systems and encompass a more general “abstract machine” or tendency governing contemporary capitalism (Parikka 300). As a consequence, the ambiguities of Amazon Noir emerge not just from the contrary articulation of intellectual property and digital technology, but additionally through the concept of thinking “resistance” simultaneously with regimes of control. This tension is apparent in Galloway’s analysis of the cybernetic machines that are synonymous with the operation of Deleuzian control societies – i.e. “computerised information management” – where tactical media are posited as potential modes of contestation against the tyranny of code, “able to exploit flaws in protocological and proprietary command and control, not to destroy technology, but to sculpt protocol and make it better suited to people’s real desires” (176). While pushing a system into a state of hypertrophy to reform digital architectures might represent a possible technique that produces a space through which to imagine something like “our” freedom, it still leaves unexamined the desire for reformation itself as nurtured by and produced through the coupling of cybernetics, information theory, and distributed networking. This draws into focus the significance of McKenzie’s Simondon-inspired cybernetic perspective on socio-technological ensembles as being always-already predetermined by and driven through asymmetries or difference. As Chun observes, consequently, there is no paradox between resistance and capture since “control and freedom are not opposites, but different sides of the same coin: just as discipline served as a grid on which liberty was established, control is the matrix that enables freedom as openness” (71). Why “openness” should be so readily equated with a state of being free represents a major unexamined presumption of digital culture, and leads to the associated predicament of attempting to think of how this freedom has become something one cannot not desire. If Amazon Noir has political currency in this context, however, it emerges from a capacity to recognise how informational networks channel desire, memories, and imaginative visions rather than just cultivated antagonisms and counterintuitive economics. As a final point, it is worth observing that the project was initiated without publicity until the settlement with Amazon.com. There is, as a consequence, nothing to suggest that this subversive “event” might have actually occurred, a feeling heightened by the abstractions of software entities. To the extent that we believe in “the big book heist,” that such an act is even possible, is a gauge through which the paranoia of control societies is illuminated as a longing or desire for autonomy. As Hakim Bey observes in his conceptualisation of “pirate utopias,” such fleeting encounters with the imaginaries of freedom flow back into the experience of the everyday as political instantiations of utopian hope. Amazon Noir, with all its underlying ethical ambiguities, presents us with a challenge to rethink these affective investments by considering our profound weaknesses to master the complexities and constant intrusions of control. It provides an opportunity to conceive of a future that begins with limits and limitations as immanently central, even foundational, to our deep interconnection with socio-technological ensembles. References “Amazon Noir – The Big Book Crime.” http://www.amazon-noir.com/>. Bey, Hakim. 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